Trying to dodge a new controversy, Facebook promised Tuesday to simplify procedures for deleting personal information from the social networking site – on the same day news reports spread that the world’s richest man had stopped using his account.

Gates’ decision was unrelated to the latest controversy to dog Facebook – that information in a user’s profile is difficult to delete. In a brief statement released to the press, Facebook said it would “ease the deletion process for those who want their personal information removed.”

The decision, which came in response to news reports of users encountering problems disposing of unwanted profiles, accompanied a vow to better explain the process to members.

Facebook spokeswoman Malorie Lucich said she had no details on how the process would change or when the changes would be in place. But she said they would supplement current procedures, which allow members to deactivate profile pages without deleting them and seek to delete an account entirely by contacting Facebook’s customer support department.

Separately, users can delete information from a profile by hand and then deactivate it to keep others from seeing it.

Experts said they didn’t think many users would eliminate their accounts when the new procedures are adopted. But they said Facebook needed to show it respects a user’s right to control his or her personal information.

“Facebook needs to respect the users’ wishes,” said Jeremiah Owyang, an analyst at Forrester Research. “If people want to be deleted, they need to be aware of how to do that.”

Some Facebook users said the process for deleting a profile is cumbersome. Melissa Saulog of San Francisco set up two profiles – one in college and one for work – and said she wanted to delete one of them. When she contacted customer support, she received no reply.

“Both profiles exist,” she said. “It’s kind of frustrating.”

Other users have set up a Facebook page with information on how to remove an account. “I’m all for people deleting their Facebook or MySpace accounts as quickly and painlessly as they’d like,” wrote member Shadi Salehi in an e-mail.

Still, the deletion controversy may not last long. “I suspect that while it might become a media issue for a minute, the overall clear demand to be part of the community is dramatically more valuable” than the potential loss of privacy, said Dennis Miller, a general partner at the venture firm Spark Capital.

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